The CSTB strengthens its support for innovation for building stakeholders

It has thus just finalized an important step in strengthening this support: the reform of one of the technical evaluation approaches, ATEx – Technical Experimental Appreciation.

The reformed ATEx will allow all stakeholders in innovation – prescribers (developers, promoters, etc.) and industrialists – to experiment and secure even more, from the design phase, the solutions they imagine , develop and prescribe, in order to make them ever more reliable and efficient and to promote their access to the market.

By strengthening experimentation and its monitoring, the CSTB aims to create optimal conditions for feedback and operational capitalization.

ATEx: a rapid technical evaluation process

For a product or process to be considered as a current technique and therefore for which it is possible to control the risk, this innovative product must benefit from an evaluation by an independent third party.

Different systems are offered to stakeholders, including the Technical Experimentation Appreciation – ATEx – which allows them to experiment by evaluating and testing innovative products, processes, systems or equipment with confidence, in their first full-scale uses and to obtain enriched knowledge.

Recognized by all construction stakeholders, the ATEx aims to:

• To provide an answer on the feasibility of an innovative project and on the technical choices in design;
• To specify the justifications to be provided upstream of the project by optimizing their implementation;
• To secure the choice and intervention of construction companies.

ATEx reform: what to remember

Carried out in consultation with stakeholders in the sector as closely as possible to their new needs and requirements, the ATEx reform aims to meet the expectations of developers, project owners, promoters and project managers, who are increasingly demanding of innovation.

This reform is structured around 2 axes:

• Enable as early as possible and from the analysis phase to secure the applicant's roadmap and the deadlines for obtaining the ATEx request to allow them to choose between reviewing their project or confirming their ATEx request;
• Support the innovation of a product or system throughout its life cycle by allowing the renewal of the technical assessment of experimentation and the taking into account of its developments, based on more formalized feedback.

For Etienne Crépon, president of the CSTB: “The numerous discussions we have with players in the construction industry lead us to optimize our evaluation systems. With this reform, the CSTB encourages stakeholders to anticipate ATEx from the programming and design phases, to secure the use of innovative techniques. It illustrates our desire to give all those who innovate the means they need, in particular to reassure the market. By facilitating and strengthening the possibility for players in the sector to experiment in the best possible conditions, the CSTB intends to fully play its role in adapting to climate change in the building sector. »